Improvement in gas-machines



4 Sheets-Shoet 1.

T. G. SPRINGER.

GAS-MACHINE.

Patented March 7,1876.

lrlwzi'sss 7 flttorneyy N. PETERS. PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D c.

4 Sheets-Sheet Z.

T. G. SPRINGER.

GAS-MACHINE.

Patented March 7,1876.

No. 17 L586.

wnzwssrrs N PETERS, FHOTO-LITHDGRAPNER. WASHINGTON, D C.

4 Sheets-Sheet 3. T G. SPRINGER.

GAS-MACHINE! v No.174,586. Patented March 7,1876

WITNESSES adcmwg,

vlttorneg y N.PETERS, FHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON, D. Q

4 Sheets-Sheet 4;.

T. G. SPRINGER.

GAS-MACHINE. v I

Patented March 7,1876.

Z VJLIZ!) Z) .dttorneyy N. PETERS; PMOT ER. WAsNmGTON n c To M L whom itmay' concern:

. machine.

- my machine. the top of the retort.

' tion.

around the retort.

UNITED STATES PA ENT OFFICE.

THEODORE e. SPRINGER, on NEW .YORK,- N.

IMPROVEMENT m GAS-MAQHIINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [74,586, dated March 7,1876;

' February 11, 1876.

Be it known that I, 11G. SPRINGER, of

New York city, in the county of New York and in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas- Machines; and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, making a part of this specification.

The nature of my invention consists in the construction and arrangement of a self-operating and seli regulating machine for generating gas from hydrocarbon-liquids, and mixing the same with air,'or with air and ordinary city gas, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, I will-now proceed to describe its construction and operation, referring to the annexed drawings, in which Figure l is a side elevation of my entire gas- Fig. 2 is another side elevation, with the retort in vertical section. Figs. 3 and 4 are enlarged detailed'views of parts of Fig. 5 shows an attachment for Arepresents the retort, orf boiler, as it may be termed, containing a coil of pipe, B, through which the hydrocarbon liquid passes to be vaporized by the action of heat from a burner,

a, underneath the retort, heating water containedin said retort and surrounding the coil B. The retort A is surrounded by an .airtight jacket, 0, having an inlet, 0 in the bottom for air. AIOLH d the upper portion of the retort the jacket 0 is perforated, and commu; nicates with a surrounding chamber, D, and from said chamber or due on one side extends the exit-pipe E for the products of combus- This circular flue, with perforations into the jacket, is simply to distribute the heat all The oil is supplied to the coil B through a valve-chamber, G, as shown in Fig. 3, the oil or liquid being admitted into said chamber through the inlet G and passes from it through a pipe, G to the coil. In the chamber G is a valve-seat, b, with a valve, d, which, when closed, stops the flow of oil.

application filed I v This valve d 'is,byits stems, connected with a lever, H, pivoted at one end, and at the other end provided with knucklejointed'arms I I. These arms, when placed on a vertical line, as shown in said Fig. 3, hold the valve d open, allowing the oil to flow freelyto the coil in the retort. If, by any accident, the ma-. chine should get out of order, the knucklejoint of the arms I I is at once broken, cans-L ing a spring, 0, to draw the lever H down, closing the valve d, and stopping the flow of oil. The knuckle-joint of the arms I-is broken by means hereinafter described. The gas to the burner a is supplied from the gas holder through a pipe, J, which is divided by means of a valve-chamber, K, having a downwardopening valve, f. The stem f of this valve passes downward, and is adjustably connected to the coupling h which, in turn, is connected, by a ball-and-socket joint, h with one end of a lever, L, the other end of which is held up by a spring, h, to keep the valve f open.

The water in the retort A forms steam, which passes through a pipe, M, into a chamber, N, within which is a diaphragm, O, the steam acting on the under side thereof. On top of this diaphragm is-secured a metal disk, is, supporting in its center a pin, 71, the upper end of which bears against and supports that end of the lever L to which the valve f is connected. The ends of the pin 2' are pointed, and placed in corresponding seats in the disk is and lever L. The pressure of steam in the chamber N raises the diaphragm O, and thereby the valve f, so as to decrease the flame of the burner a, and as soon as the heat of the retort is thereby reduced the pressure of the steam is, of course, diminished, allowing the diaphragm to settle down, and opening the valve f still farther, thus supplying more gas to the burner, and again increasing the heat of the retort and consequent steam-pressure. This forms, therefore, a complete self-regulating device to keep the retort at the required set-screw a through its upper end. If for any cause the machine should getoubof order,=so

, that no steam-pressure is exerted in the chamber N on the diaphragm 0, this sinks, and the lever is drawn by the spring it untilthe set-screw n in the arm P strikes the knucklejoint of the arms I I, breaking said join t, when the spring a at once closes the valve (1, and

stops the flow of oil. This, of course, happens only if the water should by any means ooze out of the retort from imperfect or leaky joints, or the flame under the retort should from any cause be extinguished.

The vaporized hydrocarbon passesfrom the coil B through a pipe, It, into a chamber, S,

within which is a cylindrical strainer, V, as shown in Fig. 4.

The chamber S isclosed at its outer end,

andprovided atits inner end with mouth- 5 piece, W, forming a valve-seat fora valve, .1), which opens into the strainer'againstthe press- J nre of the gas; or, ,in other words, the pressure of the gas fromtheretorts haska tendency to keep the valve closed. screwed into an injector'tnhe, T, and in the mouthpiece W of said chamber is screwed a nozzle composed of two parts, A iand 13 The part A is in the form of a..c.up, wi=th stem screwing into the mouth-piece W,,andthe part 1'. B is a plug or disk, screwed into-the part A. The plug or disk B isprovided with aseries v of small holes, a 00, through which the gas is.

va ve 1 udit forced as it passes around the stem 8.

Ordinarily, in injectors, one hole-only has been used, through which the gashas been forced, and when this hole. has to be large to admit a sufiicient quantity .of gas, the pressure has to be very great. By dividing this, and making a series of small holes instead of one large one, the same amouutof gas is forced through with the same velocity with. a very small pressure, which is of very great, importance and advantage inthe proper Work in g of the machine.

As the gas is forced through the holes 1: it creates a vacuum and suction, drawing in air through a passage, t, from a valve-chamber 0 within which is an ordinary sliding valve, D. The valve-chamber O? is provided with an inlet, E on ,top, and an inlet, 4:, on one side, bothof which maybe used for the mission of air,v or the side inlet only forthcadmission of air, and the top inlet'for the mission of city gas, when it I is desired to mix such gas with the gas made by my machine.

The valve D is. provided with a rodor stem, 1

Itionfor-keeping the valves open.

The chamb r 5 i has an arm, H connected thereto, and projecti-ng upward from. the shaft,while both the levers H and H project downward, as shown in Fig. 1. The upper end of the arm H and the lower end of the lever H are connected by a spring, d. The lever H has another armJ", connected, by links e, with the inner end of a lever, I, the outer end of which is placed between two adjustable collars, a" i, secured on a rod, h, which depends from the gas holder J. are pivoted two weighted hooks, m m, which serve to lock-the lever H in its two positions, :to hold, by means of the rock-shaft b and the connections thereto, the valves D and 1) either open or closed. The outer or weighted end of each hook has an arm, against which the .lever 151 is tostrike to tri-pfthe hook.

In Fig. 1 I have shown these part-sin posi- As'gas is being made the holder J rises, and carries with it the outer end of the lever I. This motion of the lever I gradually reverses the position of the lever H and arm H until, whenthe gas-holder has risen to the desired heighttheend of the lever .lzI strikes the arm of the hook m, which now holds the lever H,

when this hook is tripped,releasiug said lever H The springd at once throws the lever H to the opposite side until it is caught by the hook m on that side, this motion of the ilever H closing the valves D p and stopping the manufacture of gas. As the holder descends'by the consumption of the gas the oporation is reversed, so that when the holder reaches its lowest point the valves are again opened,and the manufacture of gas commences de nova.

The sudden changing of the lever H from one side tothe otherwould, unless otherwise provided for, create a jar of the working parts.

To obviate this difficulty I connect the lower .end of the lever B, by a rod, a, with a flexi- .ble diaphragm, L., within a chamber, K, having an air-inlet, s, with screw p, for regulating the admission of air into the same. By this means an air-cushion is formed to relieve ,all jar or shock.

Iffrom any causethe valves D p, or the above locking devices connected thereto, should fail to work, the gas-holder would continue to rise above the nsuallimit. In that case the holder would strike an adjustable arm, a, attached to a verticalsliding rod,b, and lift the same. 7

The lower end of the rodb is attached to a lever, M, the other end of which bears on the projecting end of another lever, N, pivoted within the case inclosing the oil and gas regnlating devices. The inner end of the lever N is bent upward, and has a setscrew, t, through it. When the holder rises far enough tooperate this mechanism the screw t strikes and breaks the joint of the arms I 1, whereby,

as already described, the valved is closed and the flow of oil stopped.

If it is desired to use steam to vaporize the hydrocarbon liquid, instead of the flame un- In the bottom of the case F I der the retort, steam is to be admitted into the retort from a boiler through any suitable connecting-pipe; and in the center of the retort is a vertical pipeor cylinder, A, closed at its lower end, and containing water. Within this cylinder is a pipe, B open at its lower end, and communicating with an exterior horizontal pipe, which leads to a vertical air-chamber, D Thepipe G is then, bya pipe, E connected with the pipe M, leading to the chamber N. By the action of the steam in the retort the oil in the coil B is vaporized, and the water contained in the cylinder A is heated, and rises through the pipe B into the pipe compressing the airinto the top of the air-chamber D forming an air-cushion to force the steam, through the pipes E and M, into the chamber N. With this machine, when'city gas is to be mixed with the air and hydrocarbon gas, a pipe from the gas-meter is to be connected with the inlet E of the valve-chest O and the suction of theinjector draws in both air and city gas at the same time.

.In the nozzle, as above described, I may use narrow slits in place of a series of small- D, surrounding the jacket, and communicating with the interior thereof by suitable perforations, for the purposes herein set forth.

2. In a liquid hydrocarbon-gas machine,-

havinga yalve for letting on and shutting off the oil, the combination of a jointed arm or trigger, I, for holding each valve open, and a mechanism for tripping said joint to close the valve automatically by the decrease of the heat of the retort below a certain fixed degree, as herein set forth.

3. The combination of the valve d, lever H, jointed arms I I, and spring 6, as and for the purposes herein set forth.

4. The combination of the valve f, adjustable valve-stem f coupling k balland-socket connection h lever L, spring 71., pin 2', and diaphragm O in the chamber N, into which steam is admitted from the retort, as and for the purposes herein set forth.

5. The combination of the gas-valve-operating lever L with arm P, having set-screw n, and the jointed arms I I, lever H, and oilto the gas main or pipe for theordinary city gas, and provided with an air-inlet, whereby air and city gas are drawn in at the same time and mixed with the oil-vapor by the suction of the injector, substantially as herein set forth.

b. The combination of the chamber S, strainer V, valve p, mouth-piece W, and noz zle A B all constructed substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

9. The combination of the injector-tube T,

with devices as described, and the valvechest 0 with inlets E v, and valve D and.

passage t, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

10. In combination with the valves D and p, operated simultaneously from a rocking shaft, the lever H and one or more latches,

m, for holding or looking the valves in either position, as herein set forth. g

. 11. The valve-locking device herein described, consisting of the levers H H arm 11 spring (1, and latches m, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

12. The arm f, link 6 and lever I, connected to the rod It, and operated by the rise and fall of the holder, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

13. The air-chamber K, with inlets, and diaphragm L, in combination with the rod n and lever H substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

14. In combination with an oil-valve held open by a jointed arm or trigger, the levers N M, rod b and arms a, or their equivalents, for breaking said joint by the rise of the gas-holder above a certain fixed point, for the purposes herein set forth.

15. The combination, with a retort, A, having interior coil B, of the cylinder A pipes B C air-chamber D and pipes E M, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 8th day of February, 1876.

THEO. G. SPRINGER. Witnesses:

H. A. HALL, J. M. MASON. 

